Deadly Reunion
by hallow777
Summary: SPOILERS FOR S03 E01! Don't read if you don't want to be spoiled! Beckett's thoughts a little before and during the events of the preview of episode one. You don't have to have watched the preview to understand this though.
1. Deadly Reunion 1

**Awwww, I wanted to be the first to write about the preview but AllusiontoAnIllusion beat me too it... Oh well.**

**So, DO NOT READ IF YOU DON'T WANT TO BE SPOILED FOR SEASON 3 EPISODE 1!**

**This is my take on the preview, just Beckett's thoughts during the preview and a little of what she may have been thinking before the events of the preview.**

**I DO NOT OWN CASTLE!**

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_See you in the fall, my ass. He didn't intend to come back from the start._

She had ignored it for weeks, thinking he was probably just too busy but, as the last week of September rolled around, she couldn't deny it anymore.

It wasn't a shocking revelation, just a depressing one. If she was honest with herself, she had known it for a while now; she just didn't want to admit it.

Over the summer Beckett had consoled herself with the thought that once he came back, maybe they could at least patch things up between them. But now there wasn't any hope of that happening.

He may have hurt her emotionally, but she would be damned if she let him hurt her career as well so, she always went to work and did her job as efficiently as always. In fact, she threw herself even more into her work to keep from dwelling on thoughts about him, especially after she realized he was not coming back.

So it was just another normal day for Beckett when they got a call from a bar where a man was found dead. Every witness they talked to said that his wife was with him right up until the TOD so naturally, they went looking for her. It didn't take long to secure her name and address then Beckett, and the guys, were heading up the elevator of a decent apartment building.

They found apartment 417 quickly enough, and just as quickly they noticed the door was ajar. Drawing their guns, Beckett peered through the door to see what she could before quickly pushing the door wide open and the three detectives rushed in, quickly clearing the main room. There was a closed door, presumably leading to the bedroom, and Beckett's attention was drawn to it as a thud sounded from the room. Signaling to the guys that she was going in the room and to watch her back, she quickly burst through the door with a swift kick and a yell of "NYPD!".

The room wasn't exactly known for having the best lighting but she could distinctly see a male figure in front of the bed. The second thing she noticed was the gun held loosely in his right hand. Ryan and Esposito saw the gun as well and then there was a flurry of "put the gun down!"

"Whoa!" Her heart skipped a beat at the voice, then stopped altogether when she got a good look at the man. Without her knowledge, her arms that had been steadily pointing the gun at him started to drop at little.

"Castle?" It wasn't the usual "What the hell are you doing?" tone that she usually used. Instead it was a different tone altogether. A tone full of emotion that she really didn't want to get into right now.

His rather unemotional, compared to hers, reply didn't exactly help either. "Beckett?"

To shocked to do anything else, she asked the first question that came to mind. "What are you doing here?"

"I-uh…" He turned to glance at the dead woman lying on the bed and what little light there was in the room glinted off the gun and the "Detective Beckett" side of her brain took over and pushed all other thoughts of him to the side.

"Down! Put it down!" That spurred the guys into action as well and they started yelling for him to put the gun down.

"No, no its o-"

"Drop it scumbag!" She wasn't exactly sure if Ryan was really angry at Castle, or he was just caught up in the moment when he said that. It could be either one since she knew that she wasn't the only one that took him leaving hard.

"Whoa, okay guys, easy. It's not what it looks like." He tried to explain himself but it wasn't helping him any.

Beckett was in full detective mode by now as she walked towards him, cautious but not as cautious as she would be with a normal criminal. "It never is. Turn around." He hesitated for a second but then the guys were right behind Beckett as she spoke again. "Castle, turn around."

She was very pleased at herself when her voice didn't waver or crack when she said the next words which immediately reminded her of the first time they met.

"Richard Castle, you are under arrest for murder."

This was undoubtedly going to be one of the hardest cases she had worked. She highly doubted that he actually did it but, once wind gets out about this, everyone is going to think that her team is covering for him. They would have to make sure that this case was air tight, that there was no way the lawyer of the true murderer could claim that they had given Castle special treatment because he was a friend. They would have to do this completely by the books, even if it meant they had to treat him exactly as they would anyone else they found standing over a body with a gun in their hand.

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**So even though I have plenty of other stories I should be working on I wrote this... I really wish I could find a way to keep myself focused... So this was purely based on the preview but I had a little idea about something that could happen after this though I highly doubt will actually happen in the series. Though, it could but I doubt it.**

**So if you want me to leave it like this let me know, if you want me to add another chapter of my idea of what could happen let me know too lol!**

**Also, this is me not so subtly asking you to pretty please watch my first ever Castle video? The link will be in my profile in a few minutes. **


	2. Deadly Reunion 2

**Okay, whereas the previous chapter was completely based off the preview, this chapter is what I think could happen for the rest of the episode though it probably wont actually happen.**

**I DO NOT OWN CASTLE!**

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Like any other prime suspect found holding a gun over a dead body, Castle was carted rather forcibly to the back of Ryan and Esposito's squad car. After they had the handcuffs on him, reading him his rights was the only time any of the detectives talked to him. That of course didn't stop Castle from blabbing on about anything and everything but thankfully; Beckett was spared from having to hear it as Ryan shut the back door of the car firmly before heading to the passenger side and sliding in. Giving them a nod they took off heading to the precinct while she walked to her car and did the same.

What was he doing there? Why did he have the gun? Did he know her? Thoughts were going through her head so fast it was surprising that she was able to focus enough to make it safely to the precinct but she did, pulling up just in time to see Ryan and Esposito hauling Castle out of the car.

Without a word passing between them, the guys took Castle up to the homicide division and deposited him in an interrogation room. When they stepped outside Beckett grabbed them both and pulled them aside.

"You realize it don't you? When we find the real guy behind all of this and if his lawyer even has half a brain he will find out about Castle's ties to us and will try to use it against us. We have to do this completely by the books, no special treatment. We can't risk this case being compromised and risk the murderer getting away with it just because we were nice to Castle. Also, do not ask or answer any questions that don't have anything to do with this case, got it?"

"Got it, boss. Do you want us to do the interrogation? We'll be good, we promise."

Beckett thought about that for a moment before admitting to herself that she was likely to slip up in some way if she had to talk to him right now.

"I'll do it if I have to but, I really don't want to."

"It's okay, we can handle it right, bro?" Ryan nodded his head and after a nod from Beckett, they gathered the papers they would need and then headed into the interrogation room.

Right now, all Beckett wanted to do was go home, take a warm bath, and most likely read one of _his_ books until she fell asleep but, that wasn't going to happen anytime soon so like always, she sucked it up then headed to Captain Montgomery's office to let him know what was going on. On second thought maybe it would have been easier to interrogate Castle because the Captain was definitely not going to like this.

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Surprisingly, the Captain took it pretty well. He made sure she knew the exact things she had told the guys a few minutes ago, then wished her and her team the best of luck because they were definitely going to need it.

About twenty minutes after that, Ryan and Esposito came out of the interrogation room and walked over to Beckett who was working on the murder board.

"Says he's friends with the couple who owns the bar which happens to be our two vics. The husband had asked him to come by their apartment that night because he wanted to talk to him about something but when he got there, only the wife was there saying that the husband had to go to the bar to settle something." Esposito stopped to take a breath and Ryan jumped in.

"Castle says that he and the wife waited in the living room for a good thirty minutes making small talk until the doorbell rang and the wife went to answer it. He says that while she went to answer the door he excused himself to the bathroom and when he came out someone came from the side and held a cloth over his mouth. Next thing he knows he's waking up on the floor of the bedroom with a gun in his hand. He had just woken up when we found him. Also, he says he's pretty sure it was chloroform that was used on him. Or at least it tasted like chloroform he said."

"Alright. We need to go back to the apartment and actually look at the crime scene this time. Lanie should be done moving the first vic and is probably waiting for us at the apartment."

The guys agreed and they all headed back to the apartment but as they were heading to the precinct elevator they passed the window of the interrogation room and Beckett couldn't help but feel a little pull in her heart as she glanced at Castle sitting at the table. But, there was definitely no time for her to be all emotional if she wanted to keep him from serving jail time.

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As predicted, Lanie was there waiting for them. Impatiently.

"Weren't you guys supposed to already be here? Like, half an hour ago? Traffic ain't that bad."

The short, but fiery, medical examiner was standing to the side of the bed with her hands on her hips as she glared at the detectives who were standing in the doorway.

"We were here but, we found a suspect and had to take him to the station." Instead of explaining further, Beckett turned to address the guys. "I'll see what Lanie has to say about the body and check out the bedroom some more. Esposito you take the living room and Ryan, you go talk to the neighbors."

The guys headed out to do their jobs and Beckett turned her attention to Lanie. "So, what can you tell me?"

"First, you tell me."

Beckett gave her her best 'wha?' expression.

"Oh don't give me that look, girl! I don't know what it is but, something is definitely up and I think it has something to do with that suspect you mentioned cuz, there really isn't anything out of the ordinary about this vic."

Stalling the inevitable, Beckett asked. "Why do you think something is up?"

"I may not be some hotshot detective like you but I definitely know how to pay attention to the details. Why did you take the suspect down to the precinct right after you found him? And since it took you so long I'm guessing that you questioned him then too? You don't normally do that. Normally you'd have some other officers take him down and deal with him after investigating the crime scene."

"Fine, I'll tell you. After you tell me about the body."

Rolling her eyes at her, Lanie complied knowing that the only other way she would get the info out of her would be to force it out, and she wasn't really in the mood for that today.

"Two small caliber bullets to the chest, pretty close range but not enough to leave a burn mark on the skin. The position of the body is a little strange though. It almost looks as if she fell on the bed but she is too high up on the bed. If she was standing at the foot of the bed and got hit then her legs would hang off the bed at least a little. I'd say she was moved here post mortem but, the only pool of blood is on the bed below here so I'm thinking that whoever did this drugged her, placed her on the bed, then shot her. I'll have to get her back to the lab to be able to tell you if she was actually drugged or not. Now, about this suspect of yours."

"Check if the drug was chloroform when you do your tests. And if it was, check for traces of it around her mouth. I want to know if they used a rag with chloroform to knock her out."

The rest of the crew were heading their way to take the body back to the morgue and Beckett thought about using that as an excuse to escape and not have to tell Lanie but quickly decided against that idea. She would find out eventually, might as well tell her now.

"As for the suspect, you know him."

"Who? Oh god it's not my cousin, Marco again is it? I swear that guy-"

"It was Castle."

There was shocked silence for a minute as Lanie tried to process that.

"Castle… As in our Castle? Writer boy?"

Yes, he was still 'their Castle'. Even though he left, they all still considered him a good friend. Of course, that didn't mean she wanted to see and/or speak to him after realizing that he wasn't coming back. He obviously didn't want anything more to do with them so why should they bother him?

When Beckett nodded, Lanie quickly gathered the taller woman in a quick hug that actually made Beckett feel a little bit better.

"What are you going to do?"

She glanced over at the guys who were now carting the body out of the room before pulling out a pair of gloves and putting them on.

"I'm going to solve a murder."

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**There shall be one more chapter to this! I'm not turning this into a big long story because 1) I already have too many of those and I don't know what I would do if I started yet another one. 2) I have no clue how Mr. Marlowe is going to bring our two favorite characters back into each other's lives after the whole arresting thing plays out so I don't really know where to go after the next chapter.**

**I wasn't going to bother with thinking up details about the murder but as I was writing they just kept coming lol. I don't think thats how it will actually play out in the actual episode but I figured I would give it a shot anyway.**

**Again, shamelessly promoting my Castle video please watch it? The link is on my profile along with the link to the video preview of season 3 episode 1.**


	3. Deadly Reunion 3

**Long chapter is LONG! Geeeeeeeeeez, I don't think I have ever written a single chapter that wasn't a oneshot that was this long before. For four straight hours I sat and wrote this thing... I currently can't feel my butt... It's gone numb from sitting in the same place so long but you really didn't need to know that did you? Sorry, it's 2 in the morning and I am soooo tired now but I wanted to get this finished and posted.**

**Please don't expect any chapters for any of my stories to ever be this long again . This one about killed me.**

**I DO NOT OWN CASTLE!**

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It didn't take Beckett and Esposito long to go over the crime scene and soon they were sending the gun and the rest of the evidence down to the lab.

"Take these down to the lab and have them test for fingerprints on the gun and have ballistics take a look at it and see if it matches the bullets found in either of our two vics." The young officer she was talking to nodded and turned to head out the door but, Beckett spoke up again before he could make it out the door. "And have Cas- The suspect we have in custody to change clothes and have the lab test them for gunshot residue." The officer was free to go now as Beckett made her way over to Esposito who was talking with Ryan.

"I just finished with the living room and around what's left of the couch there are two glasses and two circular wet stains on the coffee table that match the two cups. I sent them down to the lab already to have them tested so we can see if it supports Castle's story of talking with the wife for a while. Other than that I didn't find anything out of the ordinary though, it looks like whoever did this was looking for something."

"I talked to the tenants of four sixteen and four eighteen and both say they heard what sounded like a car backfiring but apparently the old man in three twelve has a very old car that does that all the time so they didn't think anything of it though I'm pretty sure that was our gun shots. Four eighteen happened to glance at the clock and apparently the wife was killed roughly thirty minutes after the husband. That's just enough time to get over here and knock both the wife and Castle out. Unfortunately no one remembers anyone going in or out of this apartment except us."

Beckett blew out her breath in frustration before telling the boys to see if the apartment building had any camera's installed.

There wasn't anything else for her to do at the scene so she headed back to the precinct to wait on the lab results and Lanie to call after the autopsies were done.

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Esposito walked up to her desk with a grim look on his face and Beckett just knew she wasn't going to like what he had to say but she sat back in her chair and prepared herself for what she knew was coming.

"Got the lab results back. Good news is that it's apparently an amazingly slow day for everyone else and they were able to get all the results done quickly. Bad news is, well…" He was saved from having to tell her the bad news for a few more minutes as he saw Ryan coming into the bullpen and waved him over. Once he was seated in a chair, Esposito sat down as well after seeing all the curious looks turned their way and leaned in so that only Beckett and Ryan could hear.

"Lanie pulled out the bullet that got lodged in the wife's rib cage and sent it over first thing so, Ballistics was able to run all the bullets at once and found they all came from the same gun. The gun that Castle was holding."

"Shit." Ryan's curse pretty much summed up what they were all feeling right now. Unfortunately, Esposito wasn't through yet.

"Castle's finger prints were found on the gun but that was expected since he was holding it with his bare hand when we found him. The prints were around the handle just like we saw him hold it but, his index finger print was found on the trigger as well. Knowing that, it shouldn't be much of a surprise that there was GSR on his clothes. Not that it helps much but his fingerprints and DNA were on one of the cups we found in the living room, but that could be taken either way."

She really didn't want to but she knew what she had to do. "Alright, we need to move him to the holding cell. Either you guys can do it or have another officer do it, it doesn't matter. You do need to make sure he calls his lawyer though he probably won't want to do it, you need to make him. It's going to look suspicious if he doesn't even call his lawyer when we have this much evidence stacked against him so piss him off if you have to, just get him to do it."

With a glance over to the interrogation room, Ryan and Esposito headed over to cart their soon to be very unhappy friend down to the holding cells while Beckett picked up her phone that had just started ringing and after seeing the name on the caller ID, quickly answered it.

"Lanie, _please_ tell me you have something good for me."

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"Oh come on guys! You aren't seriously going to leave me in here, are you?"

"Sorry Castle, rules are rules."

"Rules? Don't you usually put suspects in the holding cell when you actually _have_ something to hold them for? Wouldn't want you to get in trouble for putting me in here just because you're mad at me for some unexplainable reason because I can't stay in here forever, I will call my lawyer if you keep this up."

"Oh don't worry about us, bro. I think we can handle ourselves against your lawyer seeing as we have plenty evidence to keep you here. Hell, we have enough evidence against you to put you away for years. You're lucky Beckett wants to investigate the case some more."

Castle let out a cold, humorless laugh from his spot on the bench inside the holding cell. "Yeah, I'm sure she's doing this out of the _kindness_ of her heart. Shouldn't she be off making wedding plans with Demming or has she already done that?"

They hadn't exactly treated him like royalty since seeing him in their crime scene so it was understandable that he was mad but his jackass attitude was starting to get on Esposito's nerves.

"Well, you wouldn't know about any of that would you? Seeing as you tucked your tail between your legs and fled with your ex-wife at the first sign that you would once in your life have to, god forbid, actually _work_ to get something you wanted."

Castle opened his mouth for quick, and probably scathing, retort but Ryan interrupted them.

"Cool it, guys! Esposito, remember our agreement?" The one where they wouldn't talk about anything that wasn't related to this case that he had apparently forgotten about. Instead of saying anything else he just backed away and left Ryan to handle it.

"Castle, call your lawyer. We'll talk to you when we find out more but it really is looking pretty bad for you."

He gestured to the officer who was on duty to let Castle have his one phone call and then left the room to report to Beckett.

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Beckett's visit with Lanie had gone a little more productively, but not much.

The wife had been shot after she was placed on the bed though they weren't really sure why since the way she was positioned didn't seem to have any obvious significance. Lanie confirmed that it was chloroform that was used on her and it was placed over her mouth for her to breathe in. There was even a tiny fiber from the cloth still in the wife's mouth but it wasn't anything remarkable so that wasn't much help.

Beckett didn't normally spend more than a few minutes going over the details with Lanie but, this time she wanted to make sure she knew every little detail so it was nearly two hours later when she finally made her way back to the precinct. Deciding that she needed coffee and a snack she went down the hallway where the good snack machines were kept and ended up passing right by the door to the room with the holding cells right as it opened and the guys hurried out. She gave them a questioning glance and they looked at her pleadingly.

"Do we have to do this completely by the books?"

"Of course, why?"

Ryan and Esposito looked to one another before looking back to Beckett.

"You told us to have him call his lawyer. And he did, the lawyer has already come and left, promising to return in the morning but that's not really the problem."

Castle had been joking at the time but, Beckett really did get cranky when her blood sugar was low and right now it was dinner time, so she was hungry and the guys were keeping her from the snack machine, so she was a little terse when she spoke up.

"Get to the point."

"The point is that he used up his only phone call on his lawyer yet, Alexis doesn't know where he is or what happened. He's been pissed off and yelling at us to let him call her."

Oh, she hadn't thought about that. Alexis would definitely be worried about him if he didn't get in touch with her but what could they do? They certainly couldn't let him call her without risking it turning up and hurting their case later on. One of them could call her but, even though it was a less likely, it could still end up hurting their case.

"I… We can't let him have another phone call no matter what. Don't call her yourselves either. There isn't anything we can do…" She trailed off and instead of leaving, Ryan and Esposito stayed to see what she would say next since she was obviously lost in thought about something.

"That's right, there isn't anything more to do… Guys? Go home and get some rest, there isn't anything we can do right now so go home and meet back early in the morning alright?"

Confused, the two guys nodded then went to gather their stuff. It wasn't even dark yet but they certainly weren't going to question her odd behavior since they could tell she had some kind of plan.

Once they guys were gone, Beckett gathered up her stuff as well, then headed to the Captain's office to tell him they were going home for the day. The Captain also found it odd that she was leaving so early but didn't question it.

Soon, Beckett was on her way to her favorite Chinese takeout place to pick up some much needed dinner.

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Inside Castle's castle, Alexis Castle was furiously and nervously pacing around the living room. Her father was supposed to be home hours ago yet, he wasn't and he wouldn't even answer his cell phone despite the literal hundreds of times she had tried to call him. Richard Castle wasn't exactly the timeliest person but if he was going to be late coming home, he would always call his daughter yet this time, there was no phone call.

Alexis was in the middle of redialing his number when the sound of the door bell startled her into dropping her phone but she didn't care as she rushed to open the door.

"Da-" Instead of the roguishly handsome writer, she found one Kate Beckett on the other side of the door.

Being the daughter of a murder mystery writer, Alexis immediately started thinking the worse. After all, when your father goes missing then a homicide detective shows up at your door, it's usually not a good thing.

"D-detective Beckett? It's about my dad isn't it?" Beckett nodded her head and Alexis was seconds away from bursting into tears.

"Oh god, what happened? Is he really?" The flood of tears broken from their reigns and slid down her cheeks just as Beckett realized what Alexis was thinking. Placing the bag she was carrying down on the floor, Beckett put her hands on her shoulders and shook her gently until she looked up at her.

"Calm down, Alexis. Your dad is alive. He's not even hurt."

Between sniffles she asked. "Really? Then why are you here? And where is he at?"

At that Beckett let out a sigh then gave Alexis a small smile. "Can I come in? We don't need your neighbors knowing I am here."

With a nod, Alexis moved out of the door way to let Beckett in and after picking up the bag she had set on the floor earlier, Beckett quickly walked in.

"He's not hurt but, he is in trouble."

"What has he done now? He didn't steal another police horse did he?"

That got a chuckle out of Beckett but she quickly sobered up. "No, if only it were that simple. The guys and I found him near a dead body, holding a gun. We had to arrest him."

"Wha? But, there's no way he would do something like that! You can't arrest him!"

By now they had moved over to the couch and Beckett sat on one end, then turned to face Alexis who was on the other end.

"I know he wouldn't do something like that but, it's protocol to take in someone who could be a suspect. You have to understand that when we catch the real killer, he or she will hire a lawyer, most likely a good one, and that lawyer will zero in on the fact that Castle was found holding the gun and then they will try to say that we tainted the case and evidence by not following procedure because Castle has ties to us. If we hadn't arrested him there then there was a chance that when this case when to court later it would be dismissed and the killer would go free."

Alexis calmed down after Beckett's explanation because she knew it made sense.

"Okay… I get that but why didn't he call me? I guess his phone was taken as evidence but don't people at least get one phone call?"

"Well about that… I'm sorry, it's my fault. I told Ryan and Esposito to make him call his lawyer, because it might look suspicious if he hadn't, but we didn't realize until later that he wouldn't be able to contact you. That's why I'm here, because we couldn't risk calling you since it would show on the call log. Also, I didn't know if you had eaten yet and, I missed lunch with all this going on so I brought take out if you want to join me?"

She held up the bag of food and as the smell of the delicious Chinese food hit her, Alexis realized that with all the worrying she had done over her father, she hadn't eaten in a while too.

"Sure, that sounds great."

They talked about little things while they ate, things like Alexis's time at Princeton over the summer and eventually the topic of Martha came up.

"Is Martha still with Chet?"

"Yup, she lives with him still but usually ends up staying over here at least once a week."

A little while later they were both finished and after all the take out boxes were disposed of, Beckett decided that she should be getting home.

"I should be getting back. Why don't you call Martha and have her stay with you while we sort this whole case out? I'm afraid that it might be a few days."

"Oh…She's in Paris with Chet for the week. She just left yesterday and she has been talking about this trip for weeks so I don't want to ruin it for her. I'll be fine. Really."

Beckett hesitated but realized that she stayed home plenty of nights when her parents went out when she was around Alexis's age so they said their goodbyes and with a promise to do everything she could to help Castle, Beckett headed home.

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Two hours later the door bell rang, once again startling Alexis who was sitting on the couch working on her never ending math homework. When she opened it she was once again surprised to see Beckett on the other side of the door, this time carrying a duffel bag.

"I got home and started thinking and I realized that we know nothing about this case and for all we know the killer could come after you since they can't get to Castle. In other words my conscious won't let me leave you here alone, would you mind terribly if I stayed with you? I'll leave if you want but I would feel better if I was here with you."

Alexis stepped back and with a sweep of her hand, she gestured towards the room. "Make yourself at home. I was just working on my homework."

An hour later found the two women spread out on the floor surrounded by paper work. The younger one battling with algebra equations while the older was desperately trying to make the pieces of the case fit together. Thanks to a large white board they found shoved in a closet, and some tape, Beckett was able to make a miniature Murder Board and was currently arranging and rearranging the information.

Two hours after that Alexis decided to call it a night and headed up to bed while Beckett stayed in her spot on the floor, determined to find out something that would help them.

* * *

In the morning Alexis woke up to the smell of eggs and bacon cooking and immediately went downstairs to greet the detective. When she reached the bottom of the stairs she noticed that Beckett had changed into more comfortable clothes sometime during the night but she looked more tired that she had last night.

"Did you even sleep at all last night?"

"A little." Was the only reply she got before they both sat down to enjoy their breakfast. Once they were done with breakfast, they got dressed and Alexis headed to school while Beckett headed to the precinct.

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The day was long for Beckett as she ran down lead after lead, trying to find some clue that would give them a suspect whose name wasn't Castle. By dinner time she was completely exhausted, but that might have had something to do with the mere two hours of sleep she got the night before.

While the day was tiring for Beckett, it was just plain boring for Castle who had resorted to playing various word games with the officers who were on duty to guard the holding cells. Esposito and Ryan had come in some time during the day to ask him questions about why his prints were on the trigger of the gun and why there was gunshot residue on his clothes. He could only tell him what he told them before though, that after he was given chloroform he didn't wake up until a few minutes before they had gotten there and in those few minutes he had woken up, realized he had a gun in his hand, then started looking around.

He spent most of his time worrying about Alexis and that definitely did not put him in a good mood for the detectives visit but instead of rising to the bait, both Esposito and Ryan kept cool and calm anytime they were around him. When he couldn't get the officer on duty to play a game with him he would sit and think, usually about why Beckett would be treating him as if he was just some common criminal. Didn't he at least deserve some sort of better treatment? For god's sake he just wanted to call his daughter! But no, she wouldn't even let him do that. Castle hoped that when this was all over that he didn't run into her because he wasn't sure he could keep from yelling at her for being a total bitch, in his eyes, if he saw her.

* * *

Since they couldn't communicate by phone, Beckett had told Alexis before they left that morning that she wouldn't be back until around dinnertime and Alexis volunteered to make dinner for them so Beckett wouldn't have to pick up take out again.

"Whoa, that smells delicious!" She exclaimed when Alexis opened the door to the apartment and let her in.

"Thanks! We had some ribs in the refrigerator that dad was supposed to cook last night and since they would have gone bad soon, I decided to go ahead and cook them. Dad has some secret ingredient he puts on his that makes them wonderful but I don't know what it is so I hope they are still good."

Beckett moved into the living room, kicking off her shoes and dropping her purse and folders on the couch before turning to Alexis. "If they taste even half as good as they smell then I am sure they will be amazing. Anything I can do to help?"

"Actually, everything is pretty much done, I just need to get down the plates and dish it all up and we will be ready to eat."

"Sounds good."

* * *

The next morning was the same as the previous morning and all too soon it was nearing noon and Beckett was staring at the Murder Board with nothing to go on, having exhausted both herself and all her leads.

She had been running different scenarios over and over in her head but it wasn't until then that something occurred to her.

_What if? No, it couldn't be… Or could it?_ With that thought adrenaline started pumping through her system and she was off hunting down the guys, telling them about their new lead. It was a long shot but it was worth a shot.

_Definitely worth the shot_. She thought later as she drove back to Castle's castle to tell Alexis that they had found the guy responsible for the whole thing. Castle was just at the wrong place at the wrong time. After the murderer had killed the husband he had planned to make it look like the wife had killed her husband then killed herself but when he realize that Castle was there he decided to make it look like Castle had killed both of them. After knocking out Castle he carried the wife to the bed and put her on it before taking off Castle's shirt and put it on over his own clothes and firing one shot into her chest. He then took off Castle's shirt and put it back on him before wiping down the gun and moving Castle into a position where he could hold him up and use Castle's hand to pull the trigger and fire the second shot into her. Thus making it look like Castle had killed her. It was hard to prove, but they did it and as soon as they found the guy, he had escaped by jumping on the subway before they could arrest him, Castle would be free to go. They had lots of people looking for him so hopefully it wouldn't be too long before they arrested him.

She arrived at the apartment and was immediately let in by Alexis who had made dinner for them again. As expected the teen was extremely excited about the news and asked questions about how she found out it was him all through their dinner. During their dinner, Esposito sent a text letting her know that the guy had been spotted trying to check into a motel so she knew it wouldn't be long before he was arrested.

After dinner, Beckett gathered up her stuff and was going to head home since it was very likely that Castle would be released that night but Alexis insisted that she try a dessert that she had made earlier that day so, she sat down on the couch and waited until Alexis was finished dishing up the dessert.

Five minutes later, Alexis came out of the kitchen holding two bowls of an ice cream and cake mixture only to see the obviously very tired detective sound asleep on the couch.

She knew that Beckett had only gotten a few hours of sleep each night so she put one of the bowls of dessert away for later and covered Beckett with a blanket before going upstairs to let her get some much needed sleep.

* * *

Alexis had come down stairs a few hours later to get something to drink when she heard the front door knob rattle. When she got closer to the door it opened, revealing a writer in desperate need of a shave.

"Dad! You're back!" Castle looked a little pissed off as he came in the door but his expression immediately softened when he turned his gaze to Alexis.

"Hey, pumpkin! I'm so sorry you must have been so worried about me. I wanted to call you but apparently friendship counts for nothing in that place since they wouldn't even let me call you! I helped them out for over a year and yet they treat me like that just because they _assume_ I did something wrong? That's ridiculous!" He was in full rant mode by now and Alexis was having a hard time getting his attention.

"Dad. Dad! Daaaaaaad!" She didn't want to yell too loud because she didn't want to wake the still sleeping detective on the couch so she settled for reaching up and shaking his shoulders, much like Beckett did to her two days ago.

"Dad! Calm down will you? What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about Beckett and her two little henchmen! They thought I was involved in a case and treated me like scum-" He would have gone on but he caught the look that Alexis was giving him. "What?"

"Dad, you know why they did that don't you? Calm down and think about it."

"No, I don't know why and believe me I have had plenty of time to think about this while I was stuck in the holding cell for two days."

"Okay, think about it this way, if you were writing a book and Rook got caught at a crime scene much like you did by Nikki, how would she react? Would Nikki arrest Rook like Beckett did you? Think about the problems you might face later on, specifically during the trial for the case?"

Alexis could see that she got through to him as he got a faraway look like he always did when he was thinking of Nikki Heat or any of his other characters. She waited patiently as realization flashed across his face.

"Nikki would arrest him, and treat him like every other criminal she has arrested because the lawyers of the true killer would try to play on the ties between Nikki and Rook! Okay, now I feel like a jerk… I didn't even stop to think of it that way. Wait, how did you know that? How did you even know that Beckett arrested me?"

"Because she told me."

"Beckett told you?"

"Yup, she said that they couldn't let you call me and she couldn't call me so, she came over to tell me."

"Oh…" He didn't really know what to say about that since he had spent the last two days being furious at her, and her 'henchmen'. It didn't take him too long to recover though.

"Well, I hope you and 'Hurricane Martha' didn't have too many wild parties while I was locked up did you?" He slung an arm around her and gave her a hug, that he would have done earlier but he was too distracted, but after he let her go she looked at him strangely then spoke hesitantly.

"Dad… You remember that Grams left for Paris the day before you got arrested right?"

"Oh yeah, wait, you mean you were here by yourself the whole time? I guess you are old enough now… and definitely responsible enough but, I didn't even get a chance to worry about you! That's not fair! I am entitled to worry about you. Why are we still standing in the doorway? Let's move over to the couch and you can tell me all about your not so wild adventures while I was in the slammer."

He moved over to the couch and she pulled him back but not before he got a glimpse of the person curled up on his couch.

"Don't wake her up! She just got to sleep a little while ago and she's been running on practically no sleep these last two days because she stayed up all night looking over the case notes." She whispered to him and he got a confused look on his face before he whispered back to her.

"Beckett stayed with you?"

"Yup, that night she came over to tell me that you were arrested she was going to let me stay by myself but then later came back saying that she didn't know if the killer would come after me or not and didn't want to take a chance so she's been staying here. She was going to go home tonight but after dinner she fell asleep on the couch."

Castle looked over at the sleeping detective on the couch and all the anger and frustration from earlier completely melted away. He had seriously doubted that their partnership and friendship had even meant anything to her while he was in the holding cell but now, seeing that she had taken care of his daughter and spent day and night working to free him, he knew it definitely meant something to her. He doubted he would ever know exactly what it meant to her but knowing that she would still do that for him made him a very happy man.

He wouldn't be able to stand watching her with Demming at work, not that she would actually let him shadow her again anyway, but maybe he could dare to hope that the book of their lives together wasn't completely finished yet.

* * *

**Yeah... You know what I said about this NOT turning into a big long story? Wellllll, its all idlewords's fault! She/he offered me cookies to continue! How can I pass up cookies? Actually I told idlewords that I would think about continuing this story if I found more spoilers that gave me more ideas... And I found more spoilers... It's partially ChristyLouisGilmore17's (really hoping I spelled that right) fault too since I was telling her about said spoilers and I came up with a theory based on them that most likely will turn out wrong but actually fits with this story. So basically these three chapters (which I've renamed them as Deadly Reunion 1,2,3) are based on my version of the first episode then the next few chapters will be based on my version of episode 2.**

**Thank you and goodnight, me and my asleep butt are going to bed. You know whats awesome though? Waking up and finding reviews... Such a lovely way to wake up in the morning XD**


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